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Music to the ears of cancer sufferers

TONY EASTLEY: Music they say has the power to soothe a savage breast and it appears it can ease the suffering of cancer patients too.

In the most comprehensive international review yet a team of scientists has found that listening to music can reduce pain, lower blood pressure and heart rates in cancer patients.

It also has significant psychological benefits.

Here's Sarah Dingle.

(Excerpt from Beastie Boys)

SARAH DINGLE: It's designed to get the blood pumping but for some cancer sufferers this could actually have the opposite effect.

A team led by Dr Joke Bradt from Philadelphia's Drexel University studied the effects of music on almost 2,000 cancer patients.

JOKE BRADT: What the review showed is that music listening and engagement in active music experiences can help reduce anxiety in patients and also can help lower their pain and improve their mood.

It had a beneficial effect on some of their physiological responses such as heart rate and their respiratory rate, their blood pressure.

We can only assume that if a patient has much less anxiety and suffers from less pain that that's going to aid them in their recovery but also in their dealing with the cancer treatments.

SARAH DINGLE: It's the biggest review to tackle musical treatment for cancer sufferers, examining 30 trials in seven different countries from Iran to Taiwan to the United States.

Dr Bradt says it covered a wide range of patients from those just diagnosed to those in remission.

JOKE BRADT: The review included two different types of studies.

One was where patients were offered CDs that they could listen to. And patients were asked to select from maybe five or six different music styles such as new age or classical music or country western and so on.

And then another set of studies used trained music therapists. Here the music choice really is guided by the individual needs of the patient in the very moment of the session, so a music preference may be very different from one country to another.

I would assume that the American country western music may not be as popular in Spain or in an Asian country.

SARAH DINGLE: In your clinics has there been a standout favourite type of music for people who are ill?

JOKE BRADT: In the work that I did in the paediatrics hospitals it's definitely been rap music.

(Excerpt from Eminem)

JOKE BRADT: I've had to learn a lot about about rap music (laughs). But when I was working with women with chronic pain it was more classical music.

(Excerpt from Phantom of the Opera)

JOKE BRADT: I would recommend for patients and loved ones and family members to consider using the music and music therapists because I'll tell you it comes with much less side effects than anxiety reducing medicine does. And it just has the potential to bring a lot of beauty into the life of patients and into the communication with their loved one.

From the Archives

Around 500 Indigenous people fought in the First World War, and as many as 5,000 in the second. But many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. On Anzac Day, 2007, the first parade to commemorate their efforts and bravery was held in Sydney. Listen to our report from that day by Lindy Kerin.